THE ORPINGTONS 



27 



I have heard the British bred Langshans described as 

 Ostriches, as Stories, as Malay-crossed, because of their 

 abnormally long legs. I have heard and also read of 

 the Black Orpington being the result of crosses virith 

 the Minorca, the Java, and the Black Rock ( I coulo 

 accept a judicious infusion of the latter), but in the 

 whole course of my experience have never observed even 

 a suspicion of Minorca in their composition, I have 

 also heard it suggested in the usual strictly confidential 

 whisper that Mr. So-and-So obtained his brilliant green 

 sheen by a cross with the Black Hamburgh! Well, when 

 one hears such stuff uttered by young men or chattering 

 professors, it seems in the face of such ignorance ex- 

 cusable in me to expose the real position. 



I have seen pure-bred Langshans, both Croad and 

 modern, with red feathers in hackle and saddle. Per- 

 sonally I did not look upon these blemishes as indicative 

 of outside or alien color cross. Certainly not; if there 

 are not such occasional reversions how are we to 

 expect a maintenance of the brilliant sheeny plumage 

 so essential a finish to an otherwise tip-top specimen? 

 Some would say, "Ah, this is a bit of the Malay coming 

 out, this is!" Others perhaps, with a wink of cunning, 

 would suggest it as sight influence, owing to close prox- 

 imity to an adjoining pen of colored fowls. 



The late Major and Miss Croad denounced the red 

 feather as no part of their — "the true" — strain; but 

 they had it all the same in some of their best birds, and 

 need not have been ashamed to admit the fact, for such 

 reversions come occasionally in the purest of well-estab- 

 lished strains. The profound student in his search for 

 true permanent characteristics has to look deeper for 

 proofs of lineage than a few or even many red feathers 

 in a gfreen-sheened Black strain. 



As an artist and judge of vast experience, extending 

 over sixty years, I have carefully watched the evolution 

 of these three sorts from the beginning of their history; 



have studied every little detail of their composition, 

 from the egg to the chick, their habits, their growth, their 

 structure, their flesh, skin, and fat, their expression, the 

 texture, wrinkles or puckers in their faces, even to the 

 deep-toned gutteral, gurgling sound of their crow, and I 

 find them each and all more or less partaking of the same 

 heavy Asiatic characteristics, — enough to stamp them as 

 members, it may be, of various near or distant strains or 

 families, but certainly of one and the same tribe or origin. 



Well, it may be said, what good end has been served 

 in thus severing and purifying and raising each to 

 exhibition dignity? It is only adding more to the already 

 over-purified "fancy poultry.'' Yes, a good deal might 

 be said on this score, more than I can explain in these 

 brief notes. There has been much said of late for the 

 "utility" side of poultry culture, very much good done 

 by able advocates of that special branch, but if we are 

 to make real premanent progress we must look to both 

 sides of the subject. Personally, I hold the exhibition 

 side to be of first consideration, as an absolute necessity, 

 as a means, perhaps the only means, of making sure of 

 success in the greater, the national, section. It is out of 

 the "fancy" stocks (the perfected, pedigreed, tabulated 

 types) that one can look to from time to time for re- 

 liable "crosses" for the produce of the strictly speaking 

 "utilitarian" market poultry. 



The illustration (sketch and notes) of these three 

 sorts should furnish a fair example of what can be done 

 by unity of eflfort in the right (iirection. It is one of 

 the many instances in which much has been got out 

 of nothing. Three distinct classes and types of high- 

 class, valuable show birds have been obtained from 

 plain, common-place looking ancestors, a distinct gain 

 to the nation, to say nothing of the immense pleasure 

 and profit gained by the multitude of fanciers who have 

 from time to time taken their parts in these praise- 

 worthy, interesting, useful, and profitable pursuits. 



Type Variations 



GompariBon of Bnff and White Orpington Shape -with that of Black Orpingtons — The ISe-w Standard Type 



the Correct Ideal for All Three Varieties 



M. F. Delano 



THE above topic is one that gives me the greatest 

 pleasure to write about, and it should appeal very 

 strongly to every thinking breeder in the United 

 States. A variety is made or marred by the correctness 

 of the ideal type which is established for that breed. 

 There have been instances galore where grand good 

 breeds and varieties have been absolutely ruined as util- 

 ity birds by breeders taking as their ideal a type sufficiently 

 different from the one nature intended for the variety to 

 impair and ruin their utility qualities. In considering the 

 future type of the Orpington it is the earnest desire of 

 the writer that we make progress in type one that will 

 allow us not only to retain but improve the wonderful 

 utility qualities of the Orpington fowl today. 



The Blacks were the first of the Orpingtons to be 

 brought before the public. They were a grand, big fowl, 

 profusely and loosely feathered, inheriting the latter char- 

 acteristic from, their Cochin ancestors. They had all of the 

 fine qualities of the Langshan and the other heavy laying 

 blood that went into their make-up and were naturally 

 low down and close to the ground, and this characteris- 



tic appealed to the fanciers and they tried to make it an 

 inherent one in the variety as a whole and bred with this 

 ideal in view. 



In the course of time the Buflf variety and then the 

 White were brought before the public and placed on the 

 market and they were given the same name and called 

 Orpingtons. The blood that went into the make-up of 

 these two latter varieties was widely differing from that 

 from which the Black was formed. They had been given 

 the same name and therefore it was deemed necessary to 

 breed them to the same type. So for years the fanciers 

 on this side of the water have been endeavoring to bring 

 about this result. In England they have not demanded 

 the same type in the Buff and the White possessed by the 

 Black, but have developed the two latter varieties along 

 normal lines to make them the grand utihty fowl that 

 have become pre-eminent in England over all other va- 

 rieties and have taken a leading place in France as well. 



The American Poultry Association has admitted 

 three varieties of the Orpington to our American Stand- 

 ard of Perfection, the Buff, Black and White Single Comb 



